Exploring and old house

[wdfifteen]

Actually restoring it would be a nightmare, and it wouldn’t be livable by today’s standards. The kitchen is tiny. There is one tiny “full” bath in the house, plus a toilet on the second floor. Seven rooms downstairs, I lost count upstairs at 11 rooms. There is a rumor that it was an Underground Railroad house, but they say that about every old house around here.

[Por_sha911]

The problem is that sometimes you don't have a choice. In some places, if the property is declared historic, you no longer have the right to do anything unless it is approved by them.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/City-requires-property-owner-who-demolished-13467909.php

[look 171]

I would bring in an a designer and start to make that semi-restore home with today's flow and standards. Its just another old house but who knows.

Chemosphere by John Lauter is a landmark here in an area of LA where we used to do a bunch of work. The owner brought in two architect for the restoration after years of getting beat up by who knows what. The architect wrote books about John Lauter, so naturally he gets the job. They tore up the place pretty good and change out some of the layout like putting a pocket door in an opening that dies into an arch beam. Guess who had to spend days making that damn thing and the rollers to keep it from dragging the frame scratching it all up within two months? Its floor to ceiling. This was a time when I was doing a lot of the finish work myself. Even home that are declared historical bla, bla, bla, but one never know until you submit plans. Just don't let those historical groups know. They don't have jobs and like to btich about everything. No, they are not folks that work for the city.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

The balcony was too rotten for me to step out onto. The view from the balcony must have been magnificent when the fields are green.

See my comment about the roof

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Every room has a fireplace and some built-in cabinets. The finish on the wood is in remarkably good condition.

Don't let that fool you for a second.

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Part of the roof is so rotten some of the corbels have simply fallen off.

Again: roof

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Passageways in the basement made it look like catacombs.

The "thermostat" for the coal furnace is in the main hallway. A continuous chain runs through the control, and down to the damper on the furnace.

Love it.

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

What a cool old place. I'm sure someone has their eye on all that woodwork for the high end remodeling market.

(I double-dog-dare you to explore that at midnight!)

Yep.

Originally Posted by stevej37

The shingled roof doesn't look too bad. Someone must have lived there in the last 30-50 years or so.

That old asphalt roof is totally trash.

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Actually restoring it would be a nightmare, and it wouldn’t be livable by today’s standards. The kitchen is tiny. There is one tiny “full” bath in the house, plus a toilet on the second floor. Seven rooms downstairs, I lost count upstairs at 11 rooms. There is a rumor that it was an Underground Railroad house, but they say that about every old house around here.

Glad you have that perspective. As Jeff said, and as per my experience, the budget to properly restore that home would be in excess of a million. I spent someone else's million back in Alabama in the mid 90's. It was to be a museum of sorts but not with all the public access restrooms, ramps and parking. I did do the Boulder Dam Hotel downstairs conversion to a gallery and historic showplace, (just that one area) and we were in at a half mill for a 1000 sq ft. But that's a horse of a different color. We had not only the local and state historic nazis, but the Feds as well.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Zeke

That old asphalt roof is totally trash.

Glad you have that perspective. As Jeff said, and as per my experience, the budget to properly restore that home would be in excess of a million. I spent someone else's million back in Alabama in the mid 90's. It was to be a museum of sorts but not with all the public access restrooms, ramps and parking. I did do the Boulder Dam Hotel downstairs conversion to a gallery and historic showplace, (just that one area) and we were in at a half mill for a 1000 sq ft. But that's a horse of a different color. We had not only the local and state historic nazis, but the Feds as well.

The roof is trash from the walls up. I wouldn't even hazard a guess as to what it would cost to make it livable. We did not go there with the idea of buying it, we were just curious - exploring.



This is the view of the sky from one of the upstairs rooms. A tree fell on the house (big one) and a limb poked through the sheeting and crushed a number of rafters.

[look 171]

Yep, milt is correct, there's some serious rain damage and I question the foundation which I know will needs a lot of work too. Once you start to tear out that rotten skin, you better sell your third long hood RS to pay for that mess. I am remolding a small 1300 sq' home starting in 3 week with every custom fixtures and woodwork available to us. This will be a hard edge, modern house for a woman with great but wild design taste. She owns an art gallery in West Hollywood. That number is already at 285,000. Who know what we may fine once things get opened up. You mileage may vary in different states.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Wow, that house is so cool. That's a place for me. I could rebuild it.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

Wow, that house is so cool. That's a place for me. I could rebuild it.

Just dont think about pouring the foundation yourself

[fastfredracing]

Like. Thank you for sharing. That is fantastic .

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by look 171

Just dont think about pouring the foundation yourself

Well played Sir!

[TimT]

When I moved in to my house 27? years ago there was a similar control for the coal fired steam boiler in a hallway... It was not connected as the heating system was converted to oil at some point..

Reflecting I wish I had kept some of the cool fixtures when I remodeled...

With a coal furnace you could "modulate" the heat... oil and gas burners you modulate with time..

[jyl]

Digression: I was talking to a friend, he has an old woodframe house that he wants to seismically retrofit, but the foundation is bad - crumbly old concrete. Will cost huge $ to lift house and excavate/demo/repour foundation. His contractor suggests pouring four large reinforced concrete pilings at each corner, then using steel beams tied to the new pilings to support the house. Thoughts?

Nice houses in my 'hood are worth $700K to over $1MM depending on size, detailing and style. So, worth putting some money into, but my friend doesn't have $300K to redo his foundation.

I'm lucky, my foundation is in great shape - just luck of the draw, how carefully did they mix concrete 100 years ago - so I was able to have house bolted down and it was pretty straightforward. We have good soil here, flat lots, no fill, very low liquefaction risk. Wood frame houses are flexible and usually do okay in earthquakes if they don't depart their foundations.

[jyl]

OP, that house will be some rich person's project, or some very very handy person's labor of love, or it will be eventually self-demo.

It could be a cool retirement project, assuming that's all you wanted to do for the rest of your life.

[Chocaholic]

Surprised the owner allowed you to rummage through the place. A rotted board and a mis-step could have resulted in serious injury and liability for the owner.

Since your wife spoke with the owner to get approval, did she ask any questions about the place? Why abandoned, history, etc? Seems like a great opportunity to solve some mysteries.

[look 171]

John, be careful with that contractor unless engineering has been done for that specific work and approved by the city. Do not allow some contractor to just come in his home and start installing steel beams to hold up the house. If something should happen, who's at fault? the owner, of course.

I am sure the house will hold up just fine from what he described or want to do, but get it singed off by the city. Replacing that foundation shouldn't be 300k unless its on a hill side. Again, I haven't seen the house and the condition, but 300k is a lot of money just to replace the foundation. No need to lift the house completely off the ground, usually.

[cabmandone]

Such a shame to see such a beautiful old home just let go like that.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by look 171

John, be careful with that contractor unless engineering has been done for that specific work and approved by the city. Do not allow some contractor to just come in his home and start installing steel beams to hold up the house. If something should happen, who's at fault? the owner, of course.

I am sure the house will hold up just fine from what he described or want to do, but get it singed off by the city. Replacing that foundation shouldn't be 300k unless its on a hill side. Again, I haven't seen the house and the condition, but 300k is a lot of money just to replace the foundation. No need to lift the house completely off the ground, usually.

Maybe he's overstating. But the problem is the PO finished the whole basement, so nothing is accessible, they'd have to rip out multiple rooms down there to re-pour.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Since your wife spoke with the owner to get approval, did she ask any questions about the place? Why abandoned, history, etc? Seems like a great opportunity to solve some mysteries.

The owner is in his mid-60s, farming over 2000 acres. That place is the least of his worries. He inherited it and has no interest in even talking about it. Built by some relative, he doesn’t know when, doesn’t know how they made the money to build it, etc. he could make some money selling the woodwork for salvage, just isn’t interested.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by jyl

Maybe he's overstating. But the problem is the PO finished the whole basement, so nothing is accessible, they'd have to rip out multiple rooms down there to re-pour.

Then his contractor has a point, go at it from the outside shear panels on eterior and hope for no damages to the interior rooms, but that's highly unlikely. Drawings and stamps are his friends.

[Bill Douglas]

It's an excellent source of spare parts for a do-up house. One that is already structurally sound but just needs a bit of style added to it.